Environment – Page 8 – MORE PATHLESS TRAVELS

2013-03-122013-03-12

Biking for Teddy C.

I’m not sure if my one and only senatorial candidate, Teddy Casiño, has a bike or if he even knows how to ride one. I don’t know if his campaign machinery has any biking event listed. But, whatever the case, it’s a nice idea for bikers who support Teddy’s bid for the Senate to organize a mass bike ride on or around Earth Day or any other memorable date before the May 13 elections.

The idea actually came from my ex-girlfriend, who is immensely busy these days with her own hectic race to complete her university studies and get the degree she’d been aiming for since time immemorial. So she asked me to put her suggestion into blog form.

Like me, Ex-GF was at first doubtful of Teddy’s chances at winning a Senate seat although we had been supportive of his party-list’s program from Day 1. Truth to tell, we cringed at his first tentative steps to craft his messages for a wider audience, such as his rather tacky “Don’t touch my talong” slogan against GMOs.

But as he plodded along, or rather jogged and chatted and expounded his way into public consciousness, slowly gathering momentum, he started to shine, and XGF’s mental light bulbs started to emit brilliant flashes.

“Jogging is ok, but too slow if he wants to cover more ground,” she noted. “He should bike all around the city, and call on all bikers—including you,” emphatically pointing a finger at me, “to join him and help distribute his leaflets.”

“Hmm,” I said, contemplating her finger. “There’s an Earth Day bike ride on April 21,” I noted, checking a website calendar for the Firefly Brigade’s “critical mass rides” for this year. On the other hand—I corrected myself—it would probably be a bad idea to politicize an event that has already established itself as non-political.

So taking off from XGF’s idea, the next best thing is maybe for Teddy’s bikers to organize their own mass rides to raise environmental issues, bring their ecological philosophy and program to the masses in a creative way, and involve a wide range of activist and advocate groups—even plain biking enthusiasts and pedicab drivers. They can trace a well-chosen route that’s long enough to cover much ground, but not too long as to be exhausting and self-limiting in terms of participants. Continue reading “Biking for Teddy C.”

2012-05-142019-09-22

The secrets of Nagsasa Cove

Let me get straight to the point by sharing what I learned during a short stay at Nagsasa Cove in San Antonio, Zambales.

I won’t bore you with the usual mundane matters that you can Google from travelogues, such as how to get there, what’s so great about it, how to best enjoy your stay, what not to expect, and so on. Instead, I’ll tell you some interesting stories about Nagsasa, presented in Top-Ten style.

Continue reading “The secrets of Nagsasa Cove”

2012-04-292012-04-30

A myth called Pinoy summer (3)

Author’s note: This was first published on 18 May 2003 under my Pathless Travels column published by Northern Dispatch (Nordis) Weekly. I’m reposting it here in three parts, with some revisions to update my own understanding of the issue, and to make it more timely. This is Part 3. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

banana leaf umbrella — A native Filipina, caught in a sudden downpour without her Chinese-style umbrella, innovates with a broad banana leaf. This, at least, isn't a myth. But why do we continue to believe in a mythical Pinoy summer?

Again, let me wonder aloud: Why is it that despite the evidence to the contrary, the twin myths of a “Pinoy summer” and a “Pinoy rainy season” persist in the public mind?

In the same light, one wonders about the stubborn persistence of those other undying myths, about Filipinos for example having descended from “three waves of migration” — you know, the fantastic but now-debunked story about Indonesian A and B, then Malay, that many of us still believe as true.

Or how about the Code of Kalantiaw, which has been shown to be a hoax? Let’s mention too the story of the Ten Datus of Borneo, which is a folk legend that might have some historical basis but with no hard evidence so far. Or the myth that there is only one Philippine language, or five or eight at most, while the others are merely “dialects.” Continue reading “A myth called Pinoy summer (3)”